DC Comics favorites becoming YA novels

Some superheroes of the YA world just got even more super. Random House announced Thursday it has teamed with DC Entertainment for a four-book series of official young adult novels featuring some of DC Comics’ biggest superheroes written by some of the genre’s biggest authors.

The first entry will be Wonder Woman, which will be penned by Leigh Bardugo, and is slated for an August 2017 release. Bardugo is the best-selling author of the Grisha trilogy (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising) and, recently, Six of Crows, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and an ALA-YALSA Top Ten Pick of 2016.

Batman, written by Legend and Young Elites trilogy author Marie Lu will follow. Newbery Medal winner Matt de la Peña (The Living, Ball Don’t Lie) is set to take on Superman, and Throne of Glass author Sarah J. Maas will write Catwoman.

The announcement follows the recent publication of the first book in Lisa Yee’s middle-grade book series, Wonder Woman at Super Hero High.

Marvel kickstarted its entry into the YA sphere last fall with the publication of Beautiful Creatures author Margaret Stohl’s Black Widow: Forever Red. A second entry in that series, Black Widow: Red Vengeance!, is in the works; Artemis Fowl’s Eoin Colfer is working on an Iron Man novel, while Princess Academy author Shannon Hale and her husband, Dean Hale, are writing a Captain Marvel book.